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The Caves of Androzani (TV story)

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Revision as of 18:52, 28 December 2013 by Finisterboy (talk | contribs)
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The Caves of Androzani was the penultimate story of season 21 of Doctor Who. It was Peter Davison's final regular appearance as the Doctor. It was Graeme Harper's first credited Doctor Who directorial gig. Widely praised by fans, it was voted the single best televised Doctor Who story in a 2009 poll conducted by Doctor Who Magazine. (DWM 413)

As a regeneration story, it offered many unusual elements. Perhaps the most obvious was that it was written by Robert Holmes. Although the most prolific writer of the 1963 version of the programme, this was his only regeneration story. Caves was also the first regeneration story to allow for a brief scene with the incoming Doctor. Unlike any of his predecessors, the new Doctor was given the final words of the story — something that would happen for every following regeneration story. The proximate cause of regeneration was also unusual. It was the first time the Doctor willingly and explicitly underwent a regeneration to save a companion (which would next occur in The Parting of the Ways, and then again in The End of Time). It was also one of a few stories in which the Doctor regenerated before the end of the then-current series.

From a behind-the-scenes perspective, Harper's direction was hailed by those involved with the production as highly innovative. Particularly noteworthy were Harper's more free use of camera movement than usual at the time and his direction from the studio floor. Harper's energetic directorial style was in marked contrast to most who preceded him. Unlike Harper, most directors of the 1963 version of Doctor Who generally preferred to work in the booth and relay their messages to the actors and crew through the production assistant stationed on the floor. Peter Davison, in particular, found Harper's more direct style much to his liking. He lamented he had waited until his last story to receive this bolder style of direction. (DCOM: The Caves of Androzani)

Another unique aspect of the production was its use of Shakespearian soliloquy. Morgus, the principal villain of the piece, sometimes turned to camera, broke the fourth wall and revealed his thoughts directly to the audience. Though apparently the result of a mistaken impression about the script by actor John Normington, Harper kept the asides in, feeling they effectively ramped up the dramatic tension. (DCOM: The Caves of Androzani)

Synopsis

On the cave-riddled world of Androzani Minor, the Doctor and Peri inadvertently find themselves enmeshed in a war fought between the ruthless General Chellak and the sinister Sharaz Jek and his army of androids.

The duplicitous politician Morgus wants Chellak to execute the time travellers as spies, while the disfigured Jek seeks to keep Peri forever hostage within his stronghold. But the Doctor soon realises an even more gruesome fate awaits them - they have been infected with fatal spectrox toxaemia, and there is no cure...

Hunted by both factions and with death just hours away, how far must the Doctor go in order to save his friend's life?

Plot

Part one

The TARDIS lands on Androzani Minor, one of twin planets in the Sirius star system. The Doctor and Peri decide to explore a set of tracks that lead into some nearby caves.

The Doctor finds a spaceship has arrived, carrying a strange cargo. Deep in the caves, a soldier is killed by a monster. In another part of the caves, Peri catches her foot in an unknown, sticky substance. The Doctor pulls her free. He gets some on himself. Despite its sting, he is unconcerned. Peri asks why the Doctor wears a stick of celery; it is a safety precaution. He is allergic to certain gases in the praxis range of the spectrum; in their presence, celery turns purple. They discover a hoard of weapons and hear footsteps. Soldiers capture them and take them to their leader, General Chellak. As the two explain their innocence to Chellak and Major Salateen, there is a call from Trau Morgus, a business conglomerate leader on Androzani Major and CEO of the Sirius Conglomerate. Believing the two to be working for gunrunners Stotz and Krelper, he loses all interest in them and orders their deaths after seeing that Chellak's "gunrunners" are not his own men over holographic communication.

 
The impending execution

Deep in the caves, the masked madman Sharaz Jek has monitored the broadcast between Morgus and Chellak. He is delighted at Peri's beauty. In their cell the Doctor and Peri await their deaths. The Doctor notes Androzani Minor is the only source of a powerful drug called spectrox, produced by bats in the planet's caves. Spectrox is highly valued by the people of nearby Androzani Major for its ability to extend life.

The spectrox mines are controlled by Morgus, but the operation is threatened by the masked Sharaz Jek and his army of androids, causing public tension on Androzani Major over limited supplies. Morgus has funded a military operation by Androzani Major's government against Jek's androids. He has also secretly backed a gunrunning group to deliver weapons to Jek to profit from the war.

The Doctor and Peri are brought to the execution squad, dressed in red. General Chellak asks if they have any last words. The Doctor tells him the whole thing is a mockery of justice. The soldiers step forward and take aim. On command, they pump bullets into the Doctor and Peri.

Part two

Chellak has the soldiers check their weapons. As the bodies are cut free of the execution posts, Morgus switches off. He tells the President anyone without a valid work permit has been sent to Eastern labour camps to reduce crime. The President realises Morgus has been closing plants in the West and opening them again in the East. If he accepts Morgus' suggestion, the same people will be working for him without pay.

The Doctor and Peri are rescued by Sharaz Jek, who was watching them and has prepared android duplicates. They are taken to his base to become his companions in exile. Chellak and Salateen go to look at the bodies. When they turn out to be androids, Chellak realises his career is at risk. He decides to not let anyone know about it. Jek asks the Doctor and Peri to stay with him so he can look after them. Meanwhile, Stotz is having trouble. Krelper wants to cut his losses and go. He nearly kills Krelper but lets him live for the moment.

At Jek's base, the Doctor and Peri complain of rashes and cramps where they touched the sticky substance in the caves. Jek will not be seriously threatened for years. The people of Androzani Major will rise up. They can have all the spectrox they want when Jek has the head of Morgus at his feet. Meanwhile at Morgus' headquarters, Morgus is surprised to hear from Timmin that the copper mine has exploded. This takes care of overproduction and makes the price of copper rise. Morgus wants every soldier to leave his place and stand in silence. Back at Jek's base, the Doctor meets Salateen. He has been a prisoner here, too. Jek captured him months ago and replaced him with an android that looks like him. The real Salateen realises Jek will kill him now he has them for company. He laughs at their dying. They are in the first stage of spectrox toxaemia from exposure to unrefined spectrox. While there is an anti-toxin, it requires the milk of the queen bat. Due to the mining activity, all the bats have fled to deeper levels of the caves, where there is no oxygen.

 
Timmin labours in Morgus' shadow

Stotz contacts Jek and tells him his ship is in good shape and it wasn't his fault that the androids didn't show up. Before Jek leaves to meet with Stotz and the gunrunners, Peri asks why he wears a mask. Jek flies into a rage. When one of Androzani Minor's mud bursts erupted, he had no warning and Morgus left him to die. Jek survived, horribly scalded. He leaves them guarded by his androids.

In the lower levels of the caves, Jek agrees to pay half the price for the spectrox. In Jek's HQ, the Doctor reprograms the android outside the door. Peri, Salateen and he escape. Meanwhile, Stotz realises he and the gun runners can walk past Jek's androids, kill Jek and steal his spectrox. The Doctor, Peri and Salateen head into the lower levels of the caves to find the queen bat. An android fires at them. One shot hits the Doctor. Salateen fires back and destroys it. The Doctor wakes and discovers Peri has vanished. He goes to find her. Jek returns to his base, but flies into a rage that Peri has gone. The Doctor takes cover behind a rock as Stotz and the gun runners enter. One of the gun runners is attacked by a fierce magma beast. They open fire on the beast and kill another gun runner. It ignores them and approaches the rock where the Doctor is crouching.

Part three

The beast is distracted by the gun runners. It turns on them again. The Doctor escapes as the gun runners retreat. Meanwhile, Peri is taken with Salateen to General Chellak. She tells him what has happened. Stotz and the gun runners meet Jek. The Doctor meets Jek again. He tortures the Doctor and the Doctor finally tells him that Peri has been taken to Chellak. Stotz arrives. Jek tells him to take the Doctor to Androzani Major to see if he is a government spy. The Doctor is in the third stage of spectrox toxaemia and is feeling unwell, but Stotz doesn't care; the Doctor will live long enough to be questioned. In the army base, Peri also isn't feeling well, but General Chellak doesn't care; the Doctor and she have been working with Jek. Chellak orders an assault on Jek's base. Salateen agrees to tell Morgus about the assault and to throw Jek off guard when he broadcasts a message.

Jek discovers the real Salateen is free to walk around the planet, leaving Peri unguarded. Meanwhile, Stotz chains the Doctor in the bridge of his spaceship and calls Morgus. As Stotz discusses the situation with Morgus, the businessman sees the Doctor still alive. He tells Stotz that Chellak faked the attack on Jek's base. Morgus is worried the President will see his double dealings. He tells Stotz to remain in orbit and Stotz, furious, leaves the Doctor on his own. When Stotz is gone, the Doctor tries to escape. He pulls himself free of the wall and uses the power core in the centre of the ship's bridge to sear the chains from his hands. He is still very weary from the Spectrox but programs the spaceship to land or "crash" on Androzani Minor.

File:PeriAndSharazJek.jpg
Sharaz Jek tries to seduce Peri

Meanwhile, Morgus, fearing deception, invites the President into his office and opens his private lift so the President can leave. The President doesn't realise it's just an empty shaft. Morgus pushes the President into the lift and he falls to his death. Morgus orders Timmin to have the lift maintenance engineer shot and makes his own plans to travel to Androzani Minor to put the situation right himself. Meanwhile, Jek has kidnapped Peri and taken her back to his HQ, where he finds the Doctor has gone. He is now insane and needs Peri's beauty to forget the trouble that Morgus has put him in. Peri tells him the army will attack soon, but Jek already knows that - he has changed the recognition code for the belt buckle. General Chellak and his men are in for a shock...

The Doctor is in the centre of the ship's bridge. The furious Stotz returns and hears a loud, rumbling noise. He demands the Doctor open the door and regains access to the bridge by burning through the door, but he can't reach the controls. Instead, he points his weapon at the Doctor and orders him to surrender. The Doctor refuses to give up until he rescues Peri, so Stotz gives him until the count of three. The planet looms large on the ship's view screen, and the Doctor tells Stotz, "I'm not going to let you stop me now!" The Doctor closes his eyes as the ship hurtles towards the surface of Androzani Minor and as Stotz says "Three!"...

Part four

The ship's rocket pods fire at the last moment, throwing Stotz's aim off and letting the Doctor land the ship on the surface of Androzani Minor. Still very weary from the Spectrox poisoning, the Doctor escapes from the spaceship. Krelper and another gun runner chase after him. Meanwhile, General Chellak plans the real assault on Jek's base, making him believe an attack lies elsewhere. As the gun runners prepare for battle, they discover their belt buckles are not working. An android guns down Salateen and the battle kills nearly all of the gunrunners. Meanwhile, Krelper and his friend are still chasing the Doctor. He approaches a cliff and falls. As they are about to kill him, a mudburst begins and they run back to the ship. The Doctor gets to his feet and makes his way into the caves to save Peri.

File:FiveCarriesPeri.jpg
The Doctor struggles to save Peri.

Chellak and the gun runners have no choice but to push against the mudburst. Chellak sees Jek and chases him to his base. Once there, he struggles with Jek until he pulls his mask off. He is so horrified at Jek's scalded face that Jek is able to push him outside into the path of the mudburst. Jek goes to Peri. She screams at the sight of Jek's face and Jek himself lets out a cry of agony. The Doctor arrives, struggling to hold off the regeneration to rid him of the spectrox. Jek provides him with oxygen and directions to the lower parts of the caves, so he can find and milk the queen bat. As the Doctor departs to get the milk, Morgus arrives on the planet. He finds Timmin has betrayed him and taken his dirty dealings to the government, which means he is now deposed from power.

Morgus quickly deals with Stotz to kill Krelper and his friend and plots to secure Jek's private stash of spectrox so they may disappear quietly to another planet. The two make their way to Jek's base, lured by extractor fans that Jek is using to to keep the base temperature cool for Peri. Morgus orders Jek to give him the Spectrox.

Jek sees Morgus and forgets all about Peri and everything else. He pulls off his mask, showing Morgus his scalded face. As Morgus looks at Jek in shock, Jek throttles him. Stotz opens fire on Jek, but the Salateen android returns and kills him. With his last ounce of life, Jek pushes Morgus' head into his extractor fans. Morgus dies in seconds and the extractor fans short circuit and burst into flames. Jek dies in the arms of the Salateen android, giving it his last orders to hold him. The Doctor arrives just after the battle, and escapes, but the Salateen android stays where it is as the fire destroys Jek's base.

File:Fifth Doctor regenerates - Peter Davison to Colin Baker - Doctor Who - The Caves of Androzani - BBC
The Doctor sees his former companions immediately before regenerating.

The Doctor takes the recovering Peri back to the surface and the TARDIS, but a mud burst is on its way. While he unlocks the TARDIS, the Doctor spills half the bat's milk in the sand. He manages to open the door, get inside the TARDIS and dematerialise as the planet's surface explodes in boiling mud.

Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor feeds Peri all of the remaining bat's milk. She recovers to find the Doctor lying in pain on the floor. The Doctor quickly explains he only got enough bat's milk to cure Peri, but his body will shortly regenerate, though it feels different from his previous regenerations. A bright glow surrounds him as his image distorts; he begins hallucinating his previous companions urging him to live. A vision of the Master laughs at the Doctor and tells him to die. The glow grows brighter and covers the Doctor. It fades to reveal the Doctor's new incarnation, a blonde version of Maxil. The Doctor picks himself up, fully alert, and challenges his now-detoxified assistant with the words, "Change, my dear, and it seems not a moment too soon."

Cast

Crew

References

  • The Doctor has been "this way before" and says that Androzani Minor "hasn't changed".
  • Peri mentions a reticular vector gauge.
  • Peri asks why the Doctor wears a stick of celery; it is a safety precaution. He is allergic to certain gases in the praxis range of the spectrum. "If the gas is present, the celery turns purple." The Doctor apparently also believed the celery to possess some restorative ability, as he attempted to revive a dying Peri by having her smell the celery.
  • Spectrox toxaemia causes rash, cramp, spasms, slow paralysis of the thoracic spinal nerve and finally thermal death.
  • Morgus is (or was, before being deposed by Timmin) "the richest man in the Five Planets", chairman of the Sirius Conglomerate and a descendant of the first colonists.
  • During the regeneration sequence, Adric, Tegan Jovanka, Nyssa, Turlough, Kamelion and the Master are seen and heard. This is similar to the regeneration of the Fourth Doctor, who also saw images (in that case, flashbacks) of the previous companions and several enemies of that incarnation.
  • Analysing traces of fused silica on the ground of Androzani Minor, the Doctor deduces a small spaceship had recently landed.
  • The Doctor also demonstrates tracking skill by studying monoskid tracks and deducing it had departed with a heavy load, and returned unloaded.
  • In the smugglers' cave, the Doctor and Peri find gas carbines, bombs and poison volatisers.
  • The Doctor claims to be able to store oxygen for several minutes.
  • The Doctor isn't sure he is going to die or regenerate, because he feels different.
  • The Doctor confesses to Peri he tried to keep a diary, but he never finds the time to update it.

Story notes

  • Despite the title, the Doctor notes that the caves are in fact blowholes.
  • The maps of the caves shown on screen bear an uncanny resemblance to the video game Dig Dug.
  • This story had the working title of Chain Reaction.
  • This is Peter Davison's final regular television appearance as the Doctor. However, he reprised the role on screen in TV: Dimensions in Time in 1993 and TV: Time Crash in 2007.
  • The regeneration sequence features specially recorded cameos by Matthew Waterhouse, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, Mark Strickson, Gerald Flood and Anthony Ainley.
  • The closing credits to Part Four feature the face of new Doctor Colin Baker and list him before Peter Davison.
  • If the pre-companion appearance of Nyssa in TV: The Keeper of Traken is discounted, this story marks the first occasion since TV: Horror of Fang Rock in 1977 that the Doctor has spent a complete adventure with only a single companion.
  • In DWM 400, The Caves of Androzani was voted the readers' favourite televised story. Conversely, The Twin Dilemma, the very next serial, bottomed out at #200 as the least favourite, effectively book-ending the charts.
  • The only characters who do not die during this story are Peri and Timmin, who are also the only female characters. Every male character dies, apart from the Sixth Doctor (the Fifth Doctor, however, does). The Salateen android is not destroyed on-screen, but it is not definitely shown as surviving the story's events (and it's debatable whether an android would count as being "alive" in the first place).
  • This is the first time since Patrick Troughton became the Doctor in TV: The Tenth Planet in 1966 that the regeneration has not occurred in the final episode of a season.
  • Given the departure of Turlough and the destruction of Kamelion in TV: Planet of Fire, this is the only televised Fifth Doctor story not to feature at least one non-human companion.

Influences

  • Frank Herbert's Dune (people being killed over a drug that extends life; the unstable "tripod of power" between the rulers of Androzani; the "mud blows" and Androzani Minor's generally arid climate)
  • The Phantom of the Opera (mentally unbalanced but brilliant recluse wears a mask to conceal facial disfigurement; develops obsessive fascination with an attractive young woman and eventually abducts her)

Ratings

  • Part 1 - 6.9 million viewers
  • Part 2 - 6.6 million viewers
  • Part 3 - 7.8 million viewers
  • Part 4 - 7.8 million viewers

Filming locations

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • Nicola Bryant, or her stunt double, bounces after slipping down the cliff-face in episode one, obviously hitting a safety cushion of some kind.
  • The electronic device that Morgus uses in his first scene in Part One is obviously a VCR remote.
  • When Stotz cuts through the door the polystyrene is visible on the fake door.
  • Androzani Minor is supposed to be barren, deserted and uninhabited, yet in Part Four, shots of the Doctor being chased by the gunrunners show a house and tree-lined hills.
  • When the Fifth Doctor said his last word, his mouth did not seem to move.

Continuity

DVD, VHS and audio releases

DVD releases

Released as Doctor Who: The Caves of Androzani, this release was the third of 2001.

Released:

PAL - BBC DVD BBCDVD1042
NTSC - Warner Video E1606

Contents:

Rear Credits:

Notes:

  • Region 1 cover

  • Region 4 cover

  • Region 2 cover

Special Edition release

This story was released as Doctor Who: The Caves of Androzani: Special Edition.

Released:

Special Features:

  • Chain Reaction - The making of The Caves of Androzani
  • Directing Who, Now and Then - Graeme Harper
  • Russell Harty - chat show excerpt with Peter Davison and Colin Baker
  • New Photo Gallery

Notes:

  • It is only available in the UK and Australia as part of the Revisitations 1 box set, out in Region 2 on 4 October 2010. It was released with special editions of The Talons of Weng-Chiang and Doctor Who.

  • Region 2 cover

  • Region 4 cover

  • Region 1 cover

  • Region 2 box set cover

  • Region 4 box set cover

VHS releases

This story was released as Doctor Who: The Caves of Androzani.

Released:

  • UK January 1992
PAL - BBC Video BBCV4713
NTSC - Warner Video E1183

  • UK VHS cover

  • AUS VHS cover

  • US VHS cover

    • External links

    Footnotes

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